With more than 50 years covering information from the epicenter of Christendom, the Mexican Valentina Alazraki is one of those names inextricably linked to the office of Vaticanist. He has worked for Televisa, the main Mexican television network, since 1974 and has lived through - and counted - four conclaves and more than 160 papal trips.
His closeness and friendship with St. John Paul II The book "The Eternal Light of John Paul II" is one of the most personal titles about the Polish pope.
When Francis was elected to the Chair of Peter, Alazraki was already the dean of the reporters covering the Vatican. A position and a background that made her one of the closest communicators to the Pope.
Her relationship with Pope Francis went beyond a professional acquaintance, as she tells in this interview for Omnes, she maintained a particularly significant correspondence with the pontiff and treasures those letters as a sign of the human quality and closeness of the Argentine Pope.
You are one of the communication professionals who has known and dealt with Pope Francis the most. What was the first close contact you had with the Pope?
-When Pope Francis was elected, I had the enormous privilege of being the doyenne of reporters. For this reason, the then Vatican spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, asked me to welcome Pope Francis on the occasion of his first international trip to Brazil. I did so on the outward journey.
With an absolutely unprotocol tone -which is, let's say, my way of being-, I told Pope Francis that we were his traveling companions, that we would like him to see us that way, that we knew very well that journalists were not "saints of his devotion": when he was archbishop in Argentina he did not give interviews, etcetera. But I also told him "You probably think you have come here to our cabin, which is a kind of lion's cage. But the truth is not this. We don't bite, we're not mean. We want you to see us as fellow travelers and, obviously, we are journalists, so we would like you to answer our questions at some point."
Pope Francis answered in the same tone, very calm, very loose, very spontaneous, saying that, indeed, he was not at ease with the press, that he felt he did not know how to give interviews, but that he was going to make an effort and that, upon his return from Brazil to Rome, he would answer some questions. What a surprise it was when, indeed, upon his return, the Pope gave his first press conference and turned out to be an extraordinary communicator. As if he had been in the midst of journalists all his life. That was the first contact with Pope Francis.
Obviously, the fact that I was the one who welcomed him, "placed me", let's say, for Pope Francis. From that moment on, I was "the dean", taking into account that I am Mexican, that we speak the same language, that made it easier, this beginning of the relationship.
What really caught my attention, on that outbound trip, was the fact that Pope Francis - although he did not answer our questions, because he decided to do so on the way back, and that was a novelty with respect to both Pope John Paul II and Pope Francis - did not answer our questions, because he decided to do so on the way back, and that was a novelty with respect to both Pope John Paul II and Pope Francis, and that was a novelty with respect to both Pope John Paul II and Pope Francis. Benedict XVI-He wanted to greet us one by one. He stayed at the entrance of the cabin and we passed by, one after the other, to greet him. And I remember that, on that occasion, Father Lombardi told Pope Francis that I had been in the Vatican for many, many years (40 years at that time). And then Pope Francis made a joke saying that if after 40 years in the Vatican I still had not lost my faith, he would take care of opening my cause for beatification.
What I remember above all from that first trip is the closeness, the simplicity, the humanity of Pope Francis who wanted, in fact, to see us as fellow travelers and wanted to dedicate a moment to each one of us so that we could introduce ourselves, to say where we were from, from what milieu we were from. It was his first contact with us.
The Pope went from being an archbishop who did not give interviews to being one of the men coveted by the press, how did the Pope's relationship with communicators continue?
-I think that first meeting opened a very nice way of rapprochement between the Pope and the press because, from that day on, on all his trips, on the way there, the Pope wanted to greet us.
On many occasions, he would walk around the cabin and allow everyone to talk to him a little. Everything was very fast, but, obviously, each one of us could tell him something, give him a gift, even ask him a selfieAsk for a blessing for a sick person with a photograph, even a small recording.
The idea was that this contact with Pope Francis would not be journalistic, that is, we did not have to ask questions, because the questions were asked for the return. Obviously there is always someone who "half asks" a question, in theory not overtly journalistic, but whose answers can become news. When the Pope left our cabin, the custom was to exchange information: what he has said to you, what you have given him...In short, details that also gave a little color on the first day of the trip.
... there are many memories, aren't there?
-There are many moments that I remember with great fondness. For example, in 2015, I turned 60 and we were returning from a trip, from the Philippines, I think I remember. Pope Francis surprised me with a cake, even with a little candle, he put only a zero on it, so as not to say that I was 60. He came personally to give me that cake and, with a great sense of humor, he did not point out my age, but he said that I had come to the Vatican as a very young girl, from bambina. It was a very nice moment, because we know that Pope Francis does not sing, but he also sang "Happy Birthday". It was something that had never happened before on a papal plane and the truth is that for me it was an incredible gesture because, in addition to the cake, he gave me a very beautiful nativity scene in white ceramic, stylized, modern, which I keep with me and obviously I put on it every Christmas. I treasure it, because it came from the Pope's hands.
In other circumstances he also celebrated my 150th papal trips and, recently, my 160th papal trips upon returning from the long trip to Asia.
She has always had very affectionate gestures, very nice, which for me, obviously, represent an immense treasure. There have been circumstances in which, for some reason, I have not made a trip and Pope Francis, at the beginning of that trip, said: "We are very sorry for the absence of our dean". Always words of affection, gestures wanting to show me that affection.
I think that, speaking of a relationship between a Pope and a journalist, it is something very beautiful and very valuable. Obviously, the Pope has had such gestures with other colleagues, but in my case, having been the dean, perhaps he has gone a little further, as, for example, he also gave me the decoration of the Piana Order, which is the highest decoration that a Pope gives to a layperson, and I believe that it had never been given to a woman. I experienced that decoration as a recognition from Pope Francis to all journalists who day after day cover the Vatican source and that, evidently, is not an easy job, because it involves many aspects and requires knowledge, preparation, prudence, respect and ethics.
You have talked about the details of Pope Francis with you. What are the moments with the Pope that have marked you the most, personally and professionally?
-The fondest memory I have of Pope Francis is the correspondence we have exchanged and of which I have never spoken during his pontificate. Very early in his pontificate I began to write him letters in a very personal way, with a very personal content, in which I also, little by little, began to ask him for an interview, for an answer... I remember, for example, one about the possibility of Pope Francis traveling to Mexico, my country.
But the most extraordinary thing about all this is that Pope Francis always answered my letters in his own handwriting; with a very small calligraphy, -I confess that sometimes I almost needed a magnifying glass to be able to identify the Pope's handwriting properly-.
On some occasions there were also phone calls that caused me a huge surprise because a hidden number appeared, which I could not identify, therefore, I could never have imagined that they came from the Pope.
I also remember a very nice thing: On one occasion I did not go on a trip, to Lebanon, and when I returned, Pope Francis sent me a precious box of dates, because I had not been on that trip.
For me these letters of which I have never spoken (nor will I ever tell their contents) and these telephone calls speak to me of a Pope with a very strong human value, of his closeness, of a simplicity that you would never imagine what a Pope calling on the phone is like.
I was also impressed by the moments when we agreed on an interview. I was the person to whom he gave the first interview on television and we had four in the whole pontificate. The truth is an enormous privilege, because there is no other media that has had so many interviews with Pope Francis. We arranged them practically by telephone. I almost "saw", I imagined the Pope on the other side of the phone, with his agenda, with his pencil or pen in his hand... He would ask me "when do you want to come?" And in my head I would say, "how is it possible that the Pope asks you when you want to come? I mean, he is the one who has to give the appointment". And I always answered him: "Pope Francis, when you say, when you can, when you want"..., and he would give me the date and the time. I imagined him writing down in his diary the day and the hour.
I believe that these details are something that had never been seen before and they speak clearly of this extraordinarily human, close and simple personality. A Pope who, in this sense, managed a little by himself. His secretaries obviously helped him in a thousand things, but there have been things that he wanted to handle alone, let's put it this way. He explained it to me one day: for him it was like enjoying freedom, that's why he lived in Santa Marta. In an interview he told me that he had not gone to the Apostolic Palace for "psychiatric reasons", because he said he did not want to be alone, like in a funnel, he wanted to be in the midst of the people. To have this freedom to write, to answer letters, to call people on the phone, was like "walking the streets in Argentina". In Buenos Aires he walked a lot, he moved around the city by subway, by bus, he walked ..... This freedom of his to have a personal agenda, -which he managed especially in the afternoons in Santa Marta-, gave him the idea of freedom. He could not get out of there, but this personal agenda, I think it gave him oxygen.
Those of us who had the opportunity to exchange letters or phone calls, keep this as an enormous treasure. Because the Pope, in those letters, wrote with an extraordinary affection, with a sensitivity, always aware of what one could tell him, if there was a complex situation at family or health or work level... The Pope answered in tune, that is, on those topics and always offering his help and prayers... For me, it is an extraordinary legacy.
Do you have any particularly significant anecdotes that you like to remember with the Pope?
-Just as Pope Francis celebrated my birthday on the plane with a cake, I also celebrated his birthday with a cake in the shape of a charro hat. It was obviously a "good wish" for Pope Francis to visit Mexico, my country. I took it to him at the beginning of a general audience in St. Peter's Square.
From the last moments, for example, when we were coming back from the last trip we made with Pope Francis to Corsica, his birthday was going to be the next day and I gave him a cake, which a baker made very beautifully, with a notebook and a pen with the name of the Association of Accredited Journalists in the Vatican, of which I am currently president. And the Pope liked it.
Like Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI, it was my turn to give a charro hat to Pope Francis. I always did so on the occasion of the pontiffs' trips to Mexico. Fortunately, all three visited my country - John Paul II on five occasions - and I could not miss a charro hat that I gave to the Pope on the plane when we were on our way to Mexico.
How has the Pope been perceived in a polarized communicative context?
-On a professional level, covering Pope Francis has been an extraordinary but complex experience. For one reason: because of the close, direct and spontaneous way in which Pope Francis speaks, it can be a problem for unprepared communicators or those who lack a sense of responsibility or ethics.
Let me explain: speaking in such a colloquial way and coinciding with the rise of social networks - which is the time that has touched Pope Francis - I have sometimes regretted that there are phrases of the Pope, very spontaneous, which then enter the networks and go viral, without any contextualization.
I consider that being a Vaticanist today, as is my case, is much more complex and complicated than it was 40 or 50 years ago. Because 40 or 50 years ago there was a lot of time to check the information, corroborate all the sources and verify that a news item was really real. Now, since everything is so immediate, everything goes viral in a second, in a jungle of social networks and there is the danger of putting in the networks phrases or opinions of Pope Francis that do not correspond to the truth, in the sense that they do not correspond to what he said or wanted to say, because the context is missing. I think this is very serious because it can create a lot of confusion.
I have tried to put what Pope Francis said, -when he said it in a very colloquial way-, always framed in the context so that it was really understood: why the Pope said it, how he said it and why he used certain expressions that, at times, are part of a porteño dialect, with words very typical of him, of how he spoke in Argentina.
I believe that, from this point of view, a great deal of ethics and a great sense of responsibility are needed. In such a polarized world, I believe that Pope Francis has also been the object and victim of this polarization.
Pope Francis had priorities that often did not coincide with those of the great power groups -which are also the ones that manage many media-. Therefore, there is a confrontation, sometimes aggressive, on the part of some media, about some positions of the Pope, which can be inherent to the social aspect as the whole issue of migration, for example, of the choice for the most disadvantaged, the closeness to the neediest people, or certain openings of the Pope that go in a way of great tolerance, of great mercy, but that are also seen by some groups almost as a betrayal of the doctrine.
I think these have been complex years, on a professional level, in this sense. In one of the interviews I asked Pope Francis if he was aware of the risk he was running by speaking in such a spontaneous way. The Pope told me that yes, he was aware of that risk, but that he believed that it was what people liked, that he was so spontaneous, so direct, so close, with such clear language that everyone could understand and that he preferred to run the risk of perhaps being misinterpreted or misunderstood at times.
That was one part of the job. The other was really extraordinary, because we were following, not only a Pope, but a great human being. There are images that are unforgettable, such as, for example, the Pope's first trip to Lampedusa, when he was in front of the Mediterranean Sea, which for him became a cemetery, throwing that wreath of flowers thinking of all the migrants who die; or when we saw him, all alone, in the rain, in St. Peter's Square during the pandemic, asking for an end to that catastrophe for the world. It was extraordinary to see the way in which the Pope knew how to get close to so many people. Those images of Pope Francis with the sick, with migrants, in refugee camps, in prisons, are truly unforgettable.
Now we are entering a new stage. You have been at the epicenter of information for several pontificates. How do you live such intense moments as a conclave, a synod?
-Living through a conclave is a truly impressive professional experience. My first conclave was after the death of Pope Paul VI. I was just starting out in this career, I was very young, and I remember the excitement of being in St. Peter's Square, waiting for the famous smoke. In the case of John Paul I, I remember I was in the square with my cameraman, a man with a lot of experience, who had done wars, a lot of coverage. In the afternoon, a gray smoke started to come out and he told me "I'm leaving because the smoke is gray, see you tomorrow"; and like him, many teams left. I had no experience, I was 23 years old and absolutely novice, but when I saw the gray smoke I thought that gray was neither black nor white. What was my surprise when suddenly, with the positions of the Vatican commentators half-empty in the square, the white smoke was defined and, indeed, then the election of Pope John Paul I. I found myself, in the square, without a cameraman! I found an Italian cameraman I knew and I asked him the enormous favor of filming me at the moment when the Pope was about to go out on the balcony for the first time. I have this very strong memory, because it was a great lesson that, as a journalist, you should never leave the scene.
The next was for the election of John Paul II and then, after the death of John Paul II, the election of Pope Benedict XVI. All have been moments of impressive intensity.
Perhaps at a professional level, the strongest moment is when you have to announce the death of a Pope. In the case of John Paul II, we lived for days, weeks, with the anguish of "losing" that news, because the Pope was very ill: we did not know when he was going to die. At the news level, that is a very strong moment, but, obviously, the conclave is another story, because you are waiting to know the name of the new Pope. And there is always a great emotion when they appear on the balcony and begin to say the name of the future Pope, because everyone tries to understand whether or not they know the cardinal who has been elected as the new pontiff. These are moments of great intensity.
